I Hate the Mars Hill Church

I saw my first video of Mark Driscoll. aka “Pastor Mark,” a few days ago courtesy of Joeprah over at Dad-Blogs and I nearly lost my lunch. Apparently he runs Mars Hill Church in Seattle, which is one of those cult-like Christian groups that passes out the Kool-aid for weak people to drink who can’t think for themselves. Except he’s really dangerous because he makes videos, podcasts and packages his multimedia nicely to attract a younger crowd.

One such video was Pastor Mark talking with his Stepford wife about whether or not it was appropriate for men to be stay at home dads. It’s a little long, but check it out. The idiocy is astounding.

In case you don’t want to watch the whole 6 minutes (and I can’t blame you because your ears will probably start bleeding), let me recap some of the “wisdom” put out there by Pastor Mark and his wife.

His wife starts off this shit show by saying it’s impossible for a woman to respect her husband if he’s not providing for his family. And by providing, she means financially. The only way for this woman to respect and love her husband is if he’s bringing home a decent paycheck, which is about the most superficial thing I’ve ever heard. What about someone who’s a hard worker but doesn’t have the education necessary for a high paying job. He’s working 70 hours a week but they’re still struggling because he earns $4 an hour. He is not worthy of respect apparently.

But that’s just one gem from her. She goes on to talk about how “different” her kids would look if her husband stayed home with them instead of her. So apparently Pastor Mark brings home a decent paycheck, but if had to stay at home with his kids for a few days he’d be a huge failure. Yeah, THAT’S the kind of guy who should be respected right? A guy who wouldn’t even know how to properly take care of his kids if left to his own devices. What a man…

But wait, it gets better.

She talks about how women are “built to stay home” to love their kids and support their husbands. By the way all you moms out there, she also said you should be “pure” and “self-controlled.” Because I know all my mommy readers are pure as the driven snow and totally self-controlled right? Hell, most of you openly talk about sex and some of you are so forthcoming I can describe which vibrators you use in astounding detail. I just want you to know, Mrs. Pastor Mark Driscoll thinks you’re going to hell.

My favorite part of her speech is when Pastor Mark agrees with her and admits that he’d be a terrible stay at home dad. To which she says “Well, you have to spend some time with them too…” Oh really? He should spend time with his kids. I love how she throws that in there as kind of an afterthought.

Then Pastor Mark is up and he tells us that if you’re an able-bodied man, your job is to work and provide for your family no matter what. Apparently, that means even if your wife is wildly successful and pulling in six figures a year she should scrap all of that and take care of the kids. You hear that ladies? Screw that law degree, give up that career in finance…your place is in the home with dirty diapers making sure dinner is hot and on the table when your husband arrives home from work. Oh wait, what’s that? You made triple what your husband makes and so you can’t afford food? Oh well, at least you’re following “God’s plan” right? Because THAT’S the important thing.

Honestly, I don’t know why I let these religious nuts get under my skin so much. I guess I should just ignore them. But when they’re this ignorant and their words are this dangerous and poisonous, it’s hard to sit idly by.

I can’t say it enough, there is more than one way for a man (or a woman) to provide for his family. How can idiots like Pastor Mark put down men who are willing to forsake a career in order to make sure their kids are raised right? He shouldn’t be insulting them, he should be celebrating the fact that society in general has come far enough that this practice is becoming admirable. Because while women may be equipped to birth babies and breastfeed them, both sexes have the same capability to care for their kids. And if mom has a kick ass job and it’s better for Dad to stay at home, great.

But by all means Pastor Mark, keep living your life by the letter of an old book which isn’t relevant today at all. And continue to label well-intentioned stay at home dads as lazy sinners when all they’re doing is taking care of their children.

I hope this guy stays on Mars, because that’s where he and his beliefs belong.

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21 thoughts on “I Hate the Mars Hill Church”

I totally agree that this guy sounds like a nut job… but just because one loud obnoxious zealot is an idiot that is no reason (or excuse) to write off all religion, or the people who practice it, or the book that inspires it. And this is not coming from a religious person. BTW I very much enjoy the blog, thanks for sharing!

Thanks for your comment. But to clarify, I’m not writing off all religion because of Pastor Mark. I wrote off religion a long time ago, after going through 12 years of Sunday School and forming my own opinion about things.

And I’m certainly not writing off all religious people. My wife is a practicing Catholic and many of my friends and relatives are churchgoers. I personally disagree with their beliefs, but I don’t knock them for their faith.

I’m railing against extremists like Pastor Mark who use an old book (that’s what the Bible is, an old book written by fallible men) to form a belief structure that condemns and judges anyone who doesn’t agree with the strict interpretation of the verses within. And I will remain unapologetic in my criticism of people who make these ill-conceived and ridiculous moral judgments from their soap boxes in the name of Christ and religion.

i will be the first to admit that I do respect a man(or woman) who is taking care of his family instead of making excuses about why he cannot. I don’t mean care as a substitute for the word money, but I do realize baby formula and pampers don’t come free. I don’t think they should come free just because someone decided to have a baby, BUT I watched the video and they are nuts ;-0. Being personally responsible for yourself and your actions is one thing; what they are talking about it nuts.
~Mary

No question Mary, parents should be providing for their kids financially. That’s part of the job. And if a father or mother is sitting on his/her ass and shirking that responsibility, that’s inexcusable. But as you said, what they are talking about is something completely different.

Thanks for the comment and I like what I’ve read so far on your blog. Thanks for stopping by!

This is just one of the many reasons I can’t deal with organized religion. What is scary is I have seen some people (from the church) VEHEMENTLY defending this ass hat. It just drives me nuts that the same book that says, “judge not lest ye be just yourself” somehow inspires all these egocentric loudmouths to try and tell people how they should be living their lives. I have no problem with people being spiritual and making their own moral codes, just don’t try and impose it on others under the guise of righteousness.

Extremely religious people (who push it on others) piss me off. My optometrist is a woman and her husband is a teacher. When they had kids they decided that her husband would be the stay-at-home parent and go back to work when their kids went to school. She got a lot of shit about that and actually ended up changing churches because of it. I’m more of the “live and let live” type, I guess. If I was able to get a job that paid more than my husband’s he would gladly stay home while I went to work. He might even be better at it, haha.

I hate that you posted this today…cuz it’s going to force my hand with info about a blog I’m figgin’ to post. But I’ll say this. Straighties, listen up. There have been 30 states that have fucked my people and stripped us of our constitutional civil liberties (note, I did not say “rights”). There are 4 more state congresses with similar measures, bills, bans, “definitions” on the table right now. Who do you think the “right” are going to come after next? Let me give you a little clue. Once OUR rights have been taken from us, they’re going to have to go after someone. Why don’t you take a google oogle of Representative Warren “The Jiz” Chisum of Pampa, Texas and see what he’s proposed for MY state. See, the douche nozzle can’t come after me anymore because MY state has already “made their wishes known”. Fucktard Chisum is now coming back after…you. That’s right. So while y’all are running around scared “protecting marriage” and not giving two shits about my inalienable rights, fear not. I’ve got your back, even if you ain’t got mine.

What a nut. Yes, it says that you should provide for your family but it doesn’t mean it is a job. Providing for your family could mean you are providing a loving and caring home for them by staying home instead of putting them in the hands of someone else all day. No where does it say that women are the ones who should stay home and raise the kids. thats an old and outdated point of view. people like this just irk me.

Oh, this joker kills me. I saw a whole 20/20 or Nightline show about him and his ginormous money making “church.” Say what you will about his pathetic views, he has tapped into the skeptical youth market that just love to see him all tatted up riding his Harley and wearing his leather-studded clothes while he preaches about the incredible sex he has with his wife. Oh, yes, he does!

He’s got sattellite “churches” with big screens all over the place where the tattooed, pierced “misunderstood” youth show up in huge numbers. It was unbelievable to see these kids showing up on Friday nights to watch his spiel!

I don’t believe in organized religion at all, so it’s all lost on me. But this douche figured out how to hit the holy-roller jackpot by not being like the old pervs that came before him.

Driscoll is a great man, pastor, father and husband. I’ve been listening to him for nearly 3 years and he really handles God’s Word very well. I’m sorry that you don’t see the good in him, but you are entitled to your opinion.

This is disgusting! The only reason I am the stay at home parent in my house is because my husband has graduated college and makes more money than I could at this point in time. Before he graduated he was a stay at home dad for a period of time and he did an awesome job (sometimes I think he was better than I am but shhhhh)

As the child of a man who worked 3 jobs to “provide” for his family, I must say that it isn’t providing much to a child. Sure kids need food and a roof over their heads, but what they need most of all is attention and love from BOTH of their parents. I hardly even know anything about my father because he wasn’t around. This man has no idea…maybe he’ll understand when his kids are older and he realizes he knows nothing about their lives and they don’t give a shit about him.

I hope you don’t teach that same hate to your children. That would be a sad trait to pass along. Were you able to talk to Mark Driscoll to see if perhaps you could gain more clarity on his position? Just a couple of things to consider.

Seattlite: Obviously you have a comprehension problem. I’m of the belief that moms AND dads can be stay at home parents. The Driscolls believe it is a one gender job. I’m of the belief that a dad who loves his kids and provides for them by taking care of them full time is someone to be admired. The Driscolls believe a man is only a man if his paycheck is large enough.

I won’t teach my son to hate (well, he can hate the Yankees, that’s fine) but I will teach him to think for himself and I’ll teach him that money alone doesn’t define a man. I don’t need to talk to Mark Driscoll for “clarity” on his position. He spelled out his prejudices and misguided beliefs in a crystal clear fashion already.